Multiplayer or Single Player?

I've played Civ 4 on and off since it's release; couple of months straight here, few months break, back on again full force. In all of those cycles I've never even felt the need to try a multiplayer game, single with random maps and civs always kept me entertained.

Is this the same for everyone, or have I been missing out on some great feature all this time? Closest thing to multiplayer for me was following the All-leaders Challenge threads religiously even if i wasn't playing the game (long live Sisiutil!)

Does Civ 5 seem like it's keeping the same multiplayer setup? Any forum friendly features for sharing games? Auto save city/world/tech screenshots or any other useful things?

 

I actully think think this is the best thing steam can bring to Civ, mulitplayer. I am a huge fan of multiplayer but it is hard to find games and there is many problems with the gamespy servers.

Hopefully steam intergration will encourage more people to experiance the multiplayer aspect of Civ

And I think you are definitely missing out if you don't at least try it

 

Multiplayer Civ4 is a very different experience than single player! I recommend everyone try it at least once.

If nothing else it can be fun to play with a friend on a team and do a comp-stomp. You and your friend are likely to learn from each other in the process.

A coop multiplayer game is also a decent way to introduce someone to the game: you can teach them as you play with them.

 

Civ IV just doesn't suit itself to multiplayer games playable in one session. Those willing to spend more time can have great experiences though, and I think the Pitboss client is great and something similar implemented would be cool. The only MP games I'll play live/in real time so to speak are mods in civ IV though, just isn't fun with vanilla. Civ V may be more or less playable and fun at smaller scales and faster speeds, I'm not sure, but it surely will have the infrastructure at least.

 

I've always been more of a Single Player myself... tough to coordinate MP games within everyones' busy schedules. You should have made a poll, it would be interesting to see the results.

 

I play co-op with a friend, alot... with voip it works great. I also play a email game with 7 friends, it is taking forever but is fun!

 

I used to be single player exclusively, but a good friend and I play CivIV as a team against the computer and it's been a great experience for me. I've learned from his playing style (more focused on production and war) and he from mine (culture focused). We complement each other well in our playing styles and in the Civs we pick (Germany for him, Arab for me) and it makes for a good game. Like the previous poster said, VOIP is key, however, as some popups make it impossible to in game text chat when it is important (eg: "What free tech do we want from the Oracle?").

 

Multiplayer Civ is awesome It's a lot more thrilling, as your enemies are not as predictable in their actions.

Sadly, Civ4 MP was connectivity hell. I can't host Pitboss games, for instance, as I haven't got a compatible router for that. Here's hoping that this improves in Civ5 (with Steamworks I have gotten my hopes up). Pitboss is definitely the way to go for Civilization Multiplayer! At least for us non-hardcore gamers that can't play for several hours in one sitting.

 

Personally I've never seen the need for multiplayer,

 

Single player

 

Civ can be very fun in multiplayer in LAN, if you manage to have a VERY large chunk of time to play.
A week-end with geeky friends at home for example.

Though I nevertheless play it in single player mode the vast majority of the time, and I've absolutely no interest to play it online.

 

Civ4 multiplayer is cool when fighting agaisnt week players, but when you fight very good players it lacks flavour IMO. Games are too tight and most of the time the issue is determined by starting position.

 

ofc you did miss a lot

single player games means nothing, ai just cheats
its more fun for you beating in a 400m a human being or a motorbike?
in multi you just see the real players and strategies going on, things you never thought about if you only played single

no apparently many of the new features are very multi friendly
mainly the base: few units vs huge bunchs could mean its more tactic and more manageable in a fixed time
even the "only 1 unit" rule that we deduce from screenshots seems very appealable online since there wont be anymore those huge chunks of 50 cata to come and surprise take a town in 2 turns but a more planned war

lets keep our hope alive

guys did you ACTUALLY try multi in civ 4??

games are way shorter than you think, and when you are noobies they can end even in 10 min

but even fair games usually last 30 min on average

there are maps for that, specular and stuff like that

 

In the 19 years I have been playing the games in the Civilization series, I have only played one multiplayer game. And I did not finish it!

 

Ok, well done the MP thing and other than playing with a select group of friends ( whenever GS is not being pissy that is) it's rather boring.

90% of the games on MP is either FFA's ( and whoever gets resource closest to cap 1st wins), or teamers ( who are predominately control freaks and don't like it when you dare to suggest something different).

The occasional Earth game that your lucky enough to find usually degenerates into a gloatfest at the expense of the poor individual who gets taken out first. Basically, there is usually minimal to nil sportsmenship and actual true class in playing MP anymore, and don't even get me started on the total lack of immaturity in the lobby.

On those rare occasions when conditions are good, MP is actually fun ( I.E. custom map, select friends, and pw'd game). Anything other than that, at least for me and my family, it's a complete waste of time.

Never played pitboss, or email for that matter. So I can't offer an opinion to those. LAN and IP games is what predominately what I use, other than the SP games and vast array of mods that are thoroughly enjoyed by myself and friends/family from this site.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

I didn't "try it", I simply "did it". And they didn't last 30 mn, and certainly not 10.
Rather something like 10-12 hours.

Maybe you're confusing Civ with Starcraft, or maybe you imagine that the only way to play Civ in multi is some kind of dumb 10x10 deathmatch map.
So in order to try to expand your horizon, know that you can start a regular game (standard/large map) with a regular number of civilization (8 to 10), some of them being played by you and your friend (3 or 4) and the rest by the computer.

If you manage to end such a game in 30 mn, then you must not live in the same reality as me.

 

Greg is cross-pollinating forums, lol.

 

There has always been a large divide between people that play MP and those that don't. And asking about MP in a SP dominated forum is useless. There always has been 1000's of MP players, many of who enjoy competive MP as well.

If you really want to find out how MP is best to go to a MP centric site like Civplayers, www.civplayers.com . Even late in the Civ era there are still 100's of players playing every night, 2-4 hour games and having a great time playing againt real human players. These people would not ever think of playing SP again as the AI is too dumb and boring after playing real people.

And even if competitive MP is not for you, there are lots of Demo games and Diplo games to take part in in the various fan sites.

So unless you have actually tried MP, I would refrain from kocking it :-/

CS

 

you mean a dumb game, ok
ofc it lasts 10 hours if you play on large maps lol
thats not the real multi

so a dumb number of civilizations, ok
ofs it lasts 10 hours if you play in a nonsense with 10 players
maybe even ffa?
lol you have no idea what you are talking about

truth is you are LUCKY if a game lasted 10 hourse cause with these dumb settings games usually never ends

no i manage to end a NORMAL multiplayer game in 30 min

yeah its useless cause ppl who have no clue answer
its like id ask in a soccer forum a hint on tennis
ofc if dumb soccer players start flaming its useless
but if the small amount of soccer players who ALSO play tennis do reply its not useless

since its quite some time i dont pla anymore how are servers these days?
did they fix things a bit?

Moderator Action: Please keep it civil
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

Gamespy still sucks as a matchmaking host, we are of course hoping that Valves Steamworks, works much better than GS does, but GS has not had a meltdown lately at least........


CS